Dozens of Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes Thursday in the Gaza Strip, where the army announced an advance of its soldiers in the southern town of Khan Younes and violent fighting against Hamas.
At the same time, the army intensified its raids in the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, where a 27-year-old man was shot and killed, according to the Palestinian Authority.
While the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas raises fears of a regional conflagration, the United States has once again bombed the Houthi rebels in Yemen and these insurgents, who say they are in solidarity with the Palestinians, have claimed responsibility for a new attack against a " American ship” in the Gulf of Aden.
Khan Younès, new epicenter of the fighting
In the Gaza Strip, “93 people died in Israeli attacks, including 16 in a strike against a house in Rafah”, in the far south of the besieged territory where some 1.3 million Palestinians fleeing the fighting have found refuge , indicated the Hamas government.
After the raid, Umm Walid al-Zamli rushed to the hospital to find that his children were all dead.
“They are very small.
What did they do wrong?
“, she cries in this town located a few km south of Khan Younès.
Khan Younes is now the epicenter of the fighting.
According to Israel, officials from Hamas, classified as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, are hiding in the city's Nasser hospital.
“We are focused on reaching Hamas leaders,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said.
In a statement, the army said its soldiers had reached "the southernmost sector of the Gaza Strip since the start of the ground operation."
“In Khan Younes (...), soldiers supported by artillery and aviation eliminated dozens of terrorists (in hand-to-hand combat).
Israeli bombings have razed entire neighborhoods in Gaza, caused a major humanitarian crisis and knocked out more than half of the hospitals in the Palestinian territory, on which Israel has imposed a total siege since October 9 after a land, air and sea blockade dating back from 2007.
The UN said it feared a “risk of famine” and “deadly epidemics” and the World Health Organization said patients were “awaiting death” in hospitals rendered inoperable by the war.
Symbolic birthday of Kfir Bibas
Before dawn on Thursday, convoys of medicine intended for the hostages and humanitarian aid for Palestinian civilians “entered Gaza,” according to Israeli and Palestinian sources, as part of an agreement negotiated by the Qatari mediator.
At least a third of the hostages suffer from chronic illnesses requiring treatment, according to the Hostage Families Collective “Bring them home now”.
In Tel Aviv, a crowd of Israelis gathered to symbolically celebrate the birthday Thursday of the youngest hostage, Kfir Bibas, kidnapped on October 7 when he was nearly nine months old.
Hamas announced in November the death of the baby, his brother and his mother, in an Israeli bombardment.
Israeli authorities have not confirmed.